Extraterrestrial Life

We can’t yet tell how life got its start on Earth. That’s one great reason to keep looking for life elsewhere

The search for extraterrestrial life has profound physical, mental and spiritual implications, says Nathalie Cabrol in The Secret Life of the Universe—and it belongs to everyone

A new explanation for the Wow! signal suggests it was a chance detection of a furious flare crashing into a hydrogen cloud. But some researchers doubt that this idea has truly cracked the case

Mysterious “leopard spots” on a Martian rock could be evidence of extraterrestrial life—or of mere lifeless chemistry. Finding out the truth may require bringing the rock back to Earth

Claims of alien starships visiting Earth always fall short, but people still fall for them

Large language models may enable real-time communication with extraterrestrial civilizations despite the vast distances between stars. We need to start thinking about what to tell them about us

We can and should look harder for evidence of alien visitors to our solar system

Alien worlds that glow like lightbulbs or harbor molten-rock rain are revealing planets’ profound cosmic diversity—and pointing the way toward finding those that truly resemble our own familiar Earth

The hit sci-fi show’s adviser and two other researchers discuss its portrayal of scientists and their technologies

Purple may be a likely color for extraterrestrial organisms, research suggests

Facing budgetary pressure for its Mars Sample Return program, NASA has turned to private industry for ideas—perhaps with one specific company in mind

At a recent workshop, researchers and journalists debated how to announce a potential discovery of extraterrestrial life